The 641-page final plan delivers on the Murray-Darling Basin Authority's draft recommendations, which Mr Burke says will mean a reduced reliance on water buybacks and an extra focus on infrastructure investments to improve water use efficiency.

"It means buyback will be at a much slower pace to what has ever been seen in the past, and in some jurisdictions and catchments, they have probably already fulfilled the targets required for buyback," he said.

"So the big tender buyback rounds that we've seen in the past are now a thing of the past."

State governments along the river system will be responsible for coming up with ideas to return 650 gigalitres to the environment, with the final 450 gigalitres to be found in removing capacity restrictions.

"Within the first 12 months of the plan, there will be a constraints removal strategy that is put in place which will identify what all these constraints are," he said.

Farmers say while the plan is "far from perfect", they are glad the Government has taken on board many of the suggestions put forward for improving the strategy.

The head of the National Farmers Federation, Jock Laurie, says 90 per cent of the 2,750 gigalitre target has already been recovered or committed to, meaning there will only be a small amount of water needing to be purchased out of the system.

But he expects there will still be a degree of concern in some basin communities today.

"They feel very much like they've been isolated and then left alone and, to a certain extent, been picked on by the rest of the Australian community to deliver an outcome for the Australian community but at the expense of those individual communities and individual people," Mr Laurie told reporters in Canberra.

"So there will still be a tremendous amount of angst - I've got no doubt about that."

Compensation

Mr Burke says he does not expect there will be much need for significant regional compensation payments under the plan, because most of the water targets will be achieved through infrastructure improvements.

The Opposition's Murray-Darling spokesman, Simon Birmingham, says the release of a final plan is a welcome step towards ending 120 years of debate over how to manage the river system.

"I don't expect the arguments to end over night," he told ABC News.

"The ultimate test will be - is this a really good step forward?

"It may not be perfect, but does this get a step forward in the right direction in a way that delivers for the environment."

Senator Birmingham says the Coalition still needs to work through the detail of the plan, but it has indicated it is unlikely to move a parliamentary motion to disallow the document.

The Greens have been quick to criticise the plan, arguing it does not return enough water to the environment to save the river system.

"Today is the day that the Federal Government has done what they always do, and that is work with the Coalition to give what the big irrigators want for the river system and to deny the environment what it needs," Greens leader Christine Milne said.

South Australian Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young says the plan will end up killing the river system and put Adelaide's drinking water at risk.

Compromised

Jonathan La Nauze from the Australian Conservation Foundation says the plan has been heavily compromised because of the influence of upstream states.

He says the science shows the overall target should be much higher than the 3,200 gigalitres set by the basin plan.

"The plan signed by the Minister will deliver only 57 per cent of ecological targets for the Murray-Darling basin," Mr La Nauze said.

"Now those targets are not just a numbers game, those are breeding opportunities for native fish, breeding opportunities for frogs, breeding opportunities for birds.

"And they are things like ensuring that the salinity in the lower lakes and the rivers that people drink from are at acceptable levels."

The National Irrigators Council has expressed continuing concerns aspects of the plan and remains committed to the idea of legislated caps on how much water can be recovered through buybacks.

"The Government has admitted that there is a downside to communities through buybacks," council chief executive Tom Chesson said.

"We note that (Opposition Leader) Tony Abbott down at Griffith... made a commitment that he would not support a bad basin plan.

"What we'd like to see the Coalition do today is support a better basin plan, and that means putting a cap on buybacks and ensuring that... all water recovered is done in a way that has a neutral or positive benefit for rural communities."

NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell says he is willing to legislate a 3 per cent cap on water licence buybacks in his state if the Federal Government does not do it.

Victorian Water Minister Peter Walsh says there remains a number of unresolved issues that need to be finalised before he can support the plan.

"Victoria needs absolute clarity on the issues of apportionment between the basin states and the sequencing and timing of the Murray-Darling basin plan roll-out," he said.

South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill has enthusiastically backed the final plan, saying: "This is a great victory for the health of the river."